just great. Girls equal boys here, too.

[mzteris]

Girls Equal, Exceed Boys in Substance Abuse

Adolescent girls abuse drugs and alcohol just as much if not more than boys, a new study indicates.

Contrary to popular belief, more girls are new substance abusers. In 2004, 1.5 million girls started using alcohol, 730,000 girls started smoking, and 675,000 started using marijuana, according to the 2004 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.


The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) reported the findings today.


"Over the last few years, we have seen overall drug use decrease among teens—boys and girls. But the trends of substance use among our adolescent girls are alarming," said ONDCP Director John P. Walters.

- more -

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060210/sc_space/girlsequalexceedboysinsubstanceabuse

[Warpy]

1. Yeah, gotta protect the breeding stock

which is why I suspect there is so much outrage over an equal opportunity experimentation with drugs and alcohol.

The good news is that experimentation is as far as it will go for most of them. The bad news is that the experimentation is occurring during prime childbearing years. Let's hope contraceptives are among the drugs being sampled.

People without hope are prone to numb their rage and depression with various psychoactive substances. We can expect the statistics to get a lot worse until this country turns around 180 degrees and realizes its own people are more important than multinational corporations and a few rich old white males.

I would hate to be a teenager right now. I would imagine I'd be doing a hell of a lot more experimentation than I did in the 60s.

[mzteris]

2. did you see this part?

"Girls abuse for different reasons that boys. Drug and alcohol use has a more profound impact on teen girls, both physically and psychologically.

They tend to use substances to help their mood, boost their confidence, and cope with problems. Yet smoking marijuana can increase the risk of depression by five times in teen girls, and double the risk of depression for teens of both genders, research shows.

A desire to lose weight also contributes to drug abuse; girls pop diet pills four times more than boys. "


I'm not sure what you meant by your subject line - male drug use/abuse can affect the quality of the sperm as well.


**I would imagine I'd be doing a hell of a lot more experimentation than I did in the 60s.**

I'm not sure it's a question of "more" per person but of more access to more harmful substances - and of more people (girls) doing the experimenting.

[Warpy]

3. My subject line was sarcastic

Sorry it didn't come across that way.

Nobody seemed to care much until the sweet flower of young girlhood got involved. That is sarcasm, too. However, my point about hopelessness contributing to the expermentation is a valid one, as is my point about experimentation usually being self limiting. It was in the 60s and it will most likely be so now.

I'm sorry I can't buy into the hysteria about marijuana, especially. Those of us who went through the heavy drug days in the late 60s and early 70s and became boring and respectable later on will simply never buy any of it. We went through it. We know better.

[mzteris]

5. MJ is

VERY different today - much more potent - from that of 20-30 years ago.

Personally I think all drugs needs to be decriminalized and more education/treatment put in place. We'd see crime - and I think use - go down.

[Heddi]

7. My mom says "BS" on the "more potent pot"

My mom is 50 and has been smoking pot regularly since..oh...she was born, I suppose.

She tells me without any reservation that pot is no more potent these days than it was back in the 60's and 70's. Absolutely none. Just like then, you can get different "strains" or potencies depending on how much you want to pay (or not pay), but that pot today does not have a higher THC content than it did however many years ago.

http://www.drugtext.org/sub/marmyt1.html

8. Marijuana is more potent today than in the past

This myth is the result of bad data. The researchers who made the claim of increased potency used as their baseline the THC content of marijuana seized by police in the early 1970s. Poor storage of this marijuana in un-air conditioned evidence rooms caused it to deteriorate and decline in potency before any chemical assay was performed. Contemporaneous, independent assays of unseized "street" marijuana from the early 1970s showed a potency equivalent to that of modern "street" marijuana. Actually, the most potent form of this drug that was generally available was sold legally in the 1920s and 1930s by the pharmaceutical company Smith-Klein under the name, "American Cannabis".

http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/

MYTH: MARIJUANA IS MORE POTENT TODAY THAN IN THE PAST. Adults who used marijuana in the 1960s and 1970s fail to realize that when today's youth use marijuana they are using a much more dangerous drug.

FACT: When today's youth use marijuana, they are using the same drug used by youth in the 1960s and 1970s. A small number of low-THC sample sized by the Drug Enforcement Administration are used to calculate a dramatic increase in potency. However, these samples were not representative of the marijuana generally available to users during this era. Potency data from the early 1980s to the present are more reliable, and they show no increase in the average THC content of marijuana. Even if marijuana potency were to increase, it would not necessarily make the drug more dangerous. Marijuana that varies quite substantially in potency produces similar psychoactive effects.

http://www.montananorml.org/facts.php3

Myth: Marijuana is much more potent today than the sixties and seventies.
Fact: Improper storage and small sample sizes characterize the potency statistics from the sixties and seventies. Higher potency marijuana may be more available today than it was two decades ago because users are turning away from low quality Mexican shipments, and growing their own indoors more frequently. Higher potency does not make marijuana more or less dangerous -- users simply tend to smoke less.

[mzteris]

8. maybe because she hasn't taken a break

I'm her age (will be in a couple of months) and in my younger days - well - I did what most people did in the 80's.

Fast forward to the 2000's - - - and on maybe two occasions- met up with some old friends - and partook again - and I'm here to tell you - it was vastly different.

YMMV.

[ismnotwasm]

9. I've always wondered about that

Haven't smoked in 15,16 years, but I remember some pretty potent shit. The sativa vs the ithica (is that right?)I do remember the "lid" of probably backyard homegrown stuff, and what we called mexican brown,but there was great imports from Hawaii and other places. Not to mention Hashish. Sometimes we'd smoke opium, but that's different conversation I suppose (Is that still around?) Before I quit, very good green bud was available. I don't know any of the current terminology, we usually called it skunk weed.
I'm wondering if the difference is in amount? Can you get just as high on one bong hit as you used to on 5? 10? Does anybody care, or do they smoke like they used to in my time, kind of a social "let's get stupid" great marijuana smoke out?
Here's a fun website:
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/history/first12000/1.htm

[Hello_Kitty]

4. What concerns me is the sexual abuse and exploitation they face

I happened to pick up the latest copy of Glamour that was laying on the stationary bike at the gym. There's an article in there about how there are several websites devoted to boys and men molesting "drunk chicks" and filming it. And whenever a female has used alcohol or drugs there's a tendency to blame her for whatever happens to her. She was asking for it. So it's this vicious cycle of girls who medicate themselves to deal with life pressures and self image issues and then assholes take advantage of them and cause them to feel even more worthless. Which leads to more substance abuse, and on and on and on.....:(

[mzteris]

6. it's ALWAYS the girls' fault, doncha know?

She shouldn't have dressed like that, talked like that, smiled like that, looked like that. She shouldn't have been there. Shouldn't have gotten herself into that position. Shouldn't have been hanging around those people. Shouldn't have . . .






:sarcasm:

[ismnotwasm]

10. Yeah, I had to have that

Don't leave your drink out of your sight for a minute talk with one of my daughters when she turned 21. And that drunk young men are NOT your friends. Pissed me off that we had to have that very vital conversation.

I recently talked to a very attractive young women around 30 who said she went to a bar and had ONE Electric Ice tea, or whatever, some potent drink I guess (I don't drink) And evidently felt so drunk she couldn't drive home. She was kind of laughing about it, kind of clueless. She said she had this kind of drink before and it hadn't ever effected her that way. Scary world out there
A party should be a party, and a fun time, not a sexual predator fest.